Stats do a good job of summarizing a phenomena. A few years back the Taiwanese government decided to internationalize the Taiwanese universities by pouring unbelievable funds into promoting English-based programs and research activities within Taiwanese universities, hopefully bringing in accredited scholars and promising international students. The number of scholarships available either through the Taiwan scholarship or the universities is quite remarkable.

To get a sense of how fast this is happening in Taiwan I suggest we take a close look at some stats I photographed in some events I attended. It’s a bit strange, but when I asked for the presentations with the stats afterwards I was - Taiwanese politeness style - denied. I can’t imagine why.

How about we start with …

Taiwan’s been trying to encourage foreign students to come and study in Taiwan and the number of scholarships offered are increasing. I’m currently studying for a graduate program in NCKU-Tainan-Taiwan with the National Science Council scholarship which is considered part of the more general “Taiwan scholarship” offering 30,000NT$ (equal to about 900US$) monthly for a period of 3 years. It’s a very simple and straight-forward scholarship. Two weeks ago, southern Taiwan orientation for the various Taiwan scholarship holders was held at NCKU with some entertainment and information given about the …

Although I’m a foreigner in this land, I will try and give out a few recommendations for Taiwanese music albums from a few singers I was introduced to in the past few months. The Taiwanese music I will recommend to you is heavily influenced by the Taiwanese that I know. It’s not going to be Taiwanese heavy-metal, electronic or punk music, but rather some very soft and melodic Mandarin Chinese alternative like music, in more of an Alanis Morrisete style. I’m honestly not even sure all of those are Taiwanese, so I’ll hope you excuse my ignorance, but, since they’re well-liked here, I’ll just assume that they are. Let do those, say, 3 at a time…   張惠妹-我要快樂 This is …

I’m currently starting my first week of school in NCKU at Tainan on the southern part of Taiwan, supported by the Taiwan scholarship. The Taiwan scholarship offers 30,000NT$ per month for students for a period of 3 years. Usually, when I tell my Taiwanese friends about this scholarship and that I’m studying in Tainan, the response is usually - "oh, you are SO lucky! Tainan is very cheap, so this scholarship is really too much.
Now, after over a month in Tainan and figuring out the basics here, I finally know what the Taiwan scholarship gives a foreign student in Taiwan and how much things cost over here, so - jumping to the bottom line - it is not "too much", it …

My one month intense summer Chinese course ended this last Friday and it feels sad.  In the one month that we’ve been studying Chinese together, I feel we’ve become really good friends. 5 hours of intense practice and lunch out together everyday, with some nights going to KTV, movie, dinners - will do that to you, I guess. 
In the last day, the lovely ms. Hung gave us a wonderful clip she made from the photos we took during the course with "Sakura Sakura" playing in the background. We exchanged some goodbye letters and headed out to a buffet lunch sponsored by the Chinese school. After filling up, we moved on to hang-out at Dino’s World, one of the many video-games places around Tainan. …

Tong Hua by Guang Liang (Fairy-tale 童话 by Michael Wong 光良) is an unbelievably popular song among basic Chinese class teachers and students. It was there in all the Chinese schools I attended, and it’s quite obvious why - it’s easy to understand, it’s simple to follow, it’s touching and melodic. The NCKU Chinese Language school has been holding a KTV Karaoke competition this past week among the Chinese language students. Surprisingly, I knew some of the songs there, but - among others - there was Michael Wong’s Tonghua once again. So, here’s a chance to compare the Chinese language students of the NCKU Chinese Language center in Tainan-Taiwan to the Hebrew University East Asia department in Jerusalem-Israel : NCKU Language School KTV contest: …